Records of the Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees, 1938-1940, 1989-1991.
Overview
The Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees was established in November 1938 by Harvard students to aid Jewish students suffering from Nazi persecution in Germany. The records are organized in three series: General information, Fiftieth anniversary material from Irving London, History of the Committee written by Robert E. Lane and source material.
Dates
- Creation: 1938-1940, 1989-1991.
Creator
- Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees (Organization)
Conditions on Use and Access
The Records of the Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees, are open for research.
Extent
.35 cubic feet (15 folders (1 document box))The records document the origins, objectives, and activities of the Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees. The records contain forms, pledge cards, pamphlets, telegrams, letters, historical sketches, curriculum vitae, reports, news clippings, and photographs.
Historical Essay
The Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees was established in November 1938 to aid Jewish students suffering from Nazi persecution in Germany. The purpose of the Committee was to help secure scholarships for student refugees and to help "relieve the intolerable condition in which persons of religious belief, of races, or of opinions which vary with those favored by the Nazi government now find themselves."
The Harvard Corporation responded to an appeal from the Committee by agreeing to pay for twenty scholarships of $500 each for "qualified refugee students of any creed from Germany." The offer was made with the provision that the Committee pay the living expenses for each student refugee. Scholarships were limited to upperclassmen and graduate school students. The Committee raised funds through a campaign aimed at fellow students, faculty, staff members, and alumni. The Corporation accepted $5000 from the Elizabeth Glendower Evans Fund to meet its own obligation. A faculty committee was organized to select scholarship recipients. By 1942, when the program ended, 14 student refugees from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia had come to Harvard to study.
In June 1990, eight former scholarship recipients and three members of the Committee gathered to recognize and celebrate the activities of the Committee. A commemorative linden tree was planted near Boylston Hall in Harvard Yard and a plaque was embedded in the ground beneath the tree honoring the faculty, staff, and alumni whose generosity "opened doors to Student Refugees from Nazi Persecution."
Custodial History
The Irving London and Robert E. Lane materials found in this collection were gathered together by Will Tully during the course of Tully's research for a junior tutorial paper and given to the Harvard University Archives at the request of Robert E. Lane.
Acquisition Information
The Records of the Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees, were acquired through donation. Whenever possible the archivist noted the terms of acquisition in the descriptions and item lists.
The acquisitions are as follows:
- H.W.L. Dana (date of donation unknown)
- Accession number: 07775; 1975 December 11
- Accession number: 09187; 1981 May 15
- Accession number: 13217; 1995 October 17
- Accession number: 16082; 2005 February 7
Inventory update
This document last updated 2016 March 31.
Processing Information
The Records were first classified and described in the Harvard University Archives shelflist prior to 1990. In June 2008, Dominic P. Grandinetti re-processed the collection. Re-processing included integrating and reorganizing the collection, re-housing materials in the appropriate containers, including acid-free folders, and preparing this inventory.
Call numbers were simplified and reassigned. Call number HUD 3421.502 was made obsolete by the archivist during the 2008 re-processing. All the materials for the Records of the Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees, now fall under the single call number HUD 3421.
Creator
- Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees (Organization)
- Title
- Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees. Records of the Harvard Committee to Aid German Student Refugees : an inventory
- Author
- Harvard University Archives
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua18008
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
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